Maeve Dineen: Man with a mission but is he a man with a plan?

IS Michael Noonan a man with a plan or out of his depth? The straightforward answer is that we just don't know. His unexpected announcement this week that this country would not repay €3.5bn of loans owed to investors in failed Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide has taken everyone but the IMF by surprise.

Finance Minister
Michael Noonan has
been reluctant to
explain his proposals

IS Michael Noonan a man with a plan or out of his depth? The straightforward answer is that we just don't know. His unexpected announcement this week that this country would not repay €3.5bn of loans owed to investors in failed Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide has taken everyone but the IMF by surprise.

Share

Maeve Dineen: Man with a mission but is he a man with a plan?

Independent.ie

IS Michael Noonan a man with a plan or out of his depth? The straightforward answer is that we just don't know. His unexpected announcement this week that this country would not repay €3.5bn of loans owed to investors in failed Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide has taken everyone but the IMF by surprise.

Noonan has been understandably reluctant to explain his proposals in detail, saying on Wednesday that he was not giving away his negotiating position on the airwaves.

That is a perfectly reasonable stance, but the consequence is we don't really have a notion whether Noonan knows what he is up to or whether he was just chasing headlines on day 99 of his first 100 days in office.

Please sign in or register with Independent.ie for free access to Opinions.